First review: Wolfram Alpha, the web's new search engine

Friday 15 May 2009 11:24 BST

At first glance Wolfram Alpha looks like a pretty standard search engine, with a solitary text entry box. However, once you start entering questions, it soon becomes apparent what the real strength is - showing you less information than anyone else.

For instance, entering what is the population of Afghanistan' brings up the current answer (27.1 million), but also a graph showing population history, and some facts about the population such as median age. On screen, you see nothing but these facts. Entering the same search on Google, on the other hand, gives a staggering 23,600,000 results.

However, ask it for restaurants in your local area, for instance, and it'll fail, as the question is far too general.

If you need an answer to a specific question, then Wolfram Alpha is a real glimpse of how the internet could work in the future. Where google simply spurts out data, Wolfram Alpha appears to give a considered, intelligent answer, and in many cases, that is what the internet has been lacking.

Will it replace Google? Probably not. Google, for all its faults, is the backbone of the internet, and is the first place virtually everyone turns. There's also a certain satisfaction from following random links and browsing sites. If you're looking for general results, it is still king. But as an accompaniment, rather than a replacement, Wolfram Alpha deserves a place on ever computer's bookmark list.